Everyday life in a rickety old French farmhouse with two very lively Polish Lowland Sheepdogs.
A record of those little things too unimportant for a diary but too important to be forgotten.

Monday, December 16, 2013

It always seems impossible until it's done.

The knife sharpeners annual visit. He's set up shop in the garlic warehouse car park. His six and eight year olds happy to be spending the day 'helping' their father. Mother at home with the four year old, the two year old and the new born. Most children are told to avoid sharp objects. Here, it's positively encouraged. Bob and Sophie harnessed up and taken off to the local Christmas market. A good chance for them to deal with crowds and noise. Sophie takes an immediate dislike to Father Christmas ( the newsagent ) and barks loudly at him from behind the safety of 'the fonts' legs. After ten minutes we leave. Father Christmas seems relieved to see us go. Loic, the leaf blowing gardener, shows up. He blows the leaves into two enormous piles. Bob and Sophie take the opportunity to leap, head first, into them. Loic displays his characteristic good humour as his handiwork is unraveled .On our morning walk we bump into the Very Old Farmer coming back from his daily visit to his wife's grave. He's been in hospital for two days having a new stent fitted. '' Ten goes it took them but they finally found a spot in my groin " he says with a candour and lack of embarassment only the very old and the very young can display.

I love your quaint little town...I think I would love the Christmas market shopping in those lovely surroundings.I think too I would have barked at Father Christmas if I were Sophie.....he doesn't look too merry.The knife sharpener must be doing a good business especially with so many little ones to look after.

Bob and Sophie seem to be outgrowing the back of your car! Time to stop feeding them organic fertilizer and switch to regular dog chow! When I die I want to come back as a beloved pet of yours, I promise to be on my best behavior always and give you lots to blog about!Karen & Kelly Rathje(More snow in Iowa USA)

The Christmas market looks quite festive. Perhaps Sophie's reaction was because she knew he was in disguise, that there was something "wrong". Dogs sense that, they'll bark at people in Halloween costumes as well.

As Jake said, puppyhood seems as if it is drawing to a close for Sophie and Bob. Bob especially looks terribly grown. Sophie's barking brings to mind a small sign I saw in the grocers: " It's all fun and games until Santa starts making his list".

About Me

2004, we sell the rain drenched farm in Scotland and move to the warmth of southern Europe. Two very lively Polish Lowland Sheepdog brothers - Wilf and Digby - accompany us. Fluffy,patient and comical . Forever attracting laughter and new friends . After a year in Provence we moved to Italy to restore an ancient Roman watchtower . Somethings are meant not to be. Following a rather unpleasantly violent 'housejacking' ( the third in our little village ) we left Italy in late 2009 for new adventures in the rolling countryside of south west France . We are now getting to grips with a large rickety old farmhouse. Life after the violence of Italy has a gentler tempo. Digby passed on from piroplasmosis in May 2010. HIs brother, despite being diagnosed with cancer and having become blind ,soldiered on for another two years. We now embark on the next part of our journey with two new PON's - Bob and Sophie. This blog records all those little things about living with dogs that are too unimportant to make it into a diary but which make life, life.